Iron Fist 1x08 Review: I'm Not as Think as You Drunk I Am

“The Blessing of Many Fractures”
Written by Tamara Becher-Wilkinson
Directed by Kevin Tancharoen
 
The Story
Claire gets a letter from Luke, who’s still in Seagate. Then she gets attacked at her mom’s apartment by the Hand, but Colleen protects her and they get out of there. Danny finds the giant blood stain left from Ward stabbing Harold and is devastated. Hey where’s the personal assistant kid? Ward comes back to clean up and manages to fool Danny (not exactly hard) about what he’s up to. Ward blames Danny for dragging his dad into something that got him killed. Danny is devastated, and he’s determined to take Gao down before she can hurt anyone else. Which means going to China. Colleen and Claire want to come too. His plan doesn’t go beyond “grab Gao” so far. Lawrence from the board offers Joy and Ward a severance deal. $100 million each, but they both have to sign or the deal is off. Ward wants to sign immediately, but Joy put too much work into the company to want it ripped out from under her. She has a plan.
 
On the plane to China, turbulence really freaks Danny out. Claire likes the contents of 10-year-old Danny’s iPod. Claire wants the dirt on Danny/Colleen. He’s all blushing and adorable. Claire doesn’t want Danny to kill Gao. Colleen strongly disagrees with her reasoning. There’s more turbulence, and Claire has the bright idea to have Danny tell the story of the crash to get himself through the turbulence. Seems like questionable timing to focus on that, but it works. Ward goes to Lawrence to ask that he can get severance without Joy signing, even if it’s way lower. Too late. Joy already rejected it for both of them. Danny, Colleen, and Claire arrive in China. Colleen tells Danny about watching her mom die. She’d been sick, and Colleen’s dad didn’t tell her. She spent the rest of her childhood with her grandfather in Japan. Danny decides it’s time to beat up a guard. Colleen would rather bribe a beggar for what he’s seen.
 
Ward confronts Joy very angrily. She still has her plan, which involves exploiting all the dirt Jessica Jones got her on the board members to leverage them back into their positions. She did it because she thought Ward’s drug problems might land them in trouble. She regrets how little they’ve been like siblings in the last few years. She wants to be more involved in his life, and for him to be more involved in hers. Her plea for him to let her in and her admiration of him makes him tear up, and he decides to come clean about everything.
 
Danny and Colleen head for the warehouse while Claire stays outside to keep watch. Colleen still thinks killing Gao is the right play. Danny doesn’t feel in control. Colleen can relate. She hasn’t felt in control since he entered her life. Hahaha. Gao arrives and Claire honks because she can’t find the phone. A guard runs out to deal with her, but she drives off, giving him the finger. Colleen fights a lady with a sword. Matt has to battle a master of drunken fist style to get to Gao. It’s long and very entertaining, until the other guy questions Danny’s honor and Danny loses it and nearly punches him to death, then freaks out. He, Claire, and Colleen get surrounded by ninjas and Gao, who orders Claire and Colleen’s deaths. Danny, Colleen, and Claire win, but Danny realizes that Gao did kill his parents. Gao is terrified, and Danny punches towards her with the Iron Fist. He misse don purpose, shattering the door behind her. They take her prisoner. Back in NYC, Ward brings Joy to Harold’s penthouse, but at the last moment, chickens out because he’s been hallucinating blood all episode and he can’t stop seeing it. He yells at Joy and runs off.
 
Okay so this one feels a bit weak again. Maybe because Danny, Claire, and Colleen went all the way to China all of a sudden. I’d have preferred Gao to have a hideout in NYC. Danny doesn't even know he’s been ousted from the company, and that makes it feel kinda meaningless. This would’ve been a good point in the season for Danny to have lost both of the things he worked so hard for: his place at Rand and his position as the defender of K’un-Lun. Gao just found out that the Iron Fist isn’t guarding K’un-Lun, right when the way to get there is open. The episode (and the whole season) would have been much more interesting if it had been about racing Gao back to K’un-Lun to stop her from getting. Either he’d fail and K’un-Lun would be destroyed, or he’d succeed only by destroying the way to K’un-Lun, cutting himself off from it forever. And then he’d go back to NYC and find that he’s lost the company too, and then discover that Colleen is in the Hand. Bah. How does one get a job as a story editor for Marvel? Points for the drunken fist guy, though.
 
Things I Liked

• Claire, the voice of reason
• I kind of like how consistent Danny is about being the worst of planners. He’s good at goals. He’s absolute crap at plans.
• Ward having Lady Macbeth style hallucinations of blood on his clothes.
• Claire shipping Danny/Colleen
• Danny and Colleen bonding over their lack of parents
• Stealth Jessica Jones reference!
• “Hey, Claire, how was your trip to China? Oh, you know. We committed arson and then got killed by an evil ninja cult. It was great. What’d you do this weekend?”
• Kisses!
• DRUNKEN MONK (I based a D&D character off this guy!)
• Colleen’s swordfight, except for the part where she got sliced being a really obvious, awkward pause with her just kinda standing there
• Claire arming up the second she scents danger.

 
Things I Didn’t

• Ward letting Danny feel responsible for Harold’s death. Rude. How can you say something like that to a guy with such a puppy face?
• “Killing is wrong, no matter who pulls the trigger or why.” Um, excuse me, Claire? What about that ninja you shoved out a window to his second death? I thought you were in the “sometimes lethal force is necessary, but preferably only in self defense” camp.
• $100 million is not “a little money”
• Claire interrupting before Colleen and Danny can kiss

 
The Characters
So Danny clearly has a sore spot when it comes to his honor and whether or not he cares about his oath, but WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?! Also, there was a lot of talk about whether killing is an acceptable thing to do, and Danny definitely killed that goon who worked for Gao (he stabbed him in the chest, and there’s no way he would’ve survived it even if the blade hadn’t been poisoned), but somehow that doesn’t count because he stayed in control and didn’t kill Gao herself? Well that’s a rather selective, elitist no-kill policy. Also, what’s all this about anger issues? He’s had a few outbursts over the course of the season, but this episode is the first time we hear about it like it’s a serious flaw in his training. On the whole, Danny’s characterization doesn’t feel well thought out in this one, and it’s frustrating.
 
What was Ward planning to show Joy in the penthouse? Harold is dead! He’s kept Harold’s return from her all these years, and the day after he murders him is not a good day to consider telling her the truth. But he’s clearly still suffering from the effects of the drugs he’s taken, so he’s not thinking clearly.
 
Maybe the point of all that waffling Joy has done on whether she’s corporate or compassionate was that she’s both? She can quietly dig up dirt on the board members as a preemptive measure and she can go behind Ward’s back, but she also deeply cares about him and admires him. I think she’s an “ends justify the means” type person.
 
Colleen is cool with killing, and if this was supposed to be foreshadowing for her being in the Hand, it falls pretty flat for me, because she made good points and Claire’s argument was badly undermined by the skeleton in her own closet.
 
Overall Rating
3/5